Student Perspectives on Assignment Deadline Policies in Computer Science Courses

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged higher education to be more flexible, there is now growing uncertainty regarding the usefulness of flexibility as students return to in-person classes, particularly in fast-paced, rigorous fields such as Computer Science (CS). A big part of providing flexibility in education is through assignment deadlines. On one hand, flexible deadline policies may reduce student stress, help students face unexpected circumstances, and improve student learning; on the other, too much flexibility may lead to procrastination and poor time management. In order to help CS instructors make informed decisions when choosing an assignment deadline policy, we compared student perspectives on different deadline policies and assessed their benefits and drawbacks. Results from a survey of 56 undergraduate students showed that deadline policies that provide both flexibility and structure for students have the advantage of being perceived as more welcoming, causing less stress, and reflecting instructor concern for mental health without having negative effects on time management and leading to procrastination. Participants also overwhelmingly preferred flexible deadline policies to a strict deadline policy, citing reduced stress and the ability to deal with unexpected circumstances as their primary reasons.